All Forum Posts by: Dan Grossman

Thank you @Dmitriy Fomichenko

My situation:

I have a cousin who has been a teacher in Northern California for more than 25 years and has a 401k worth more than $200K.  We get along great and after reading about self directed IRAs I was thinking we could access his retirement funds in order to invest in a property together.  He is interested we just don't know how to go about getting our funds together.  

I currently live abroad and don't have a consistent W-2 (which limits my ability to borrow money), but I do have a small office space that is rented and fully paid off.  I would match his $200K by selling some stocks and using savings so we would go in together 50-50 on whatever property we would invest in.  

My questions are:  Besides getting a lawyer to establish a LP, how would we legally combine our funds in order to acquire an investment property?  Would we establish a trust?   How could we get additional funds in order to get enough money to invest in the bay area, considering my living situation abroad, lack of consistent W-2?  Would my cousin's W-2 from teaching and my fully paid office space be enough to get a loan for the the purchase price- let's say of around $1.5M?

I appreciate any advice on my situation.

Best,

Dan

Hello,

Has anyone heard of a clause in a HOA covenant (CC&R) where the commercial tenants in a mixed use building can opt out of the residential HOA and form their own HOA? The community dues are astronomical and two of the three commercial tenants (including me) want to pay less since we don't benefit as much as the residential tenants from the HOA dues (like parking in the garage, fob use, common spaces, etc).

Has anyone heard of a stipulation like this before?

Thank you,

Dan 

That's a great idea Theresa.  I previously had ignored board related issues, but I won't anymore.  I will look into what the percentage increase is as well per residential unit.  Thank you.

I understand they need to have reserves, but my tenants don't use the elevator because they are all on the ground floor. They don't use the garage because they are not residents. They don't use the fob keys because they have their own entrances to their shops and have no need to go into the main building. That is the problem. The HOA charges ridiculously high fees for services my tenants don't benefit from. That is what I would like to put a stop to. But thank you Chris for your reply.

I own a couple small commercial properties in a mixed used building in the SOMA area of San Francisco. The top two floors of the building are apartments and the bottom floors are four commercial spaces, I own two (850 sq/ft each). The monthly HOA fees are north of $1,000 AND they charged a special assessment fee to fix the outdated fire alarm system for almost $9,000 in September. The worst part about it is my tenants in the commercial spaces don't get the advantages of the residential residents, such as use of the parking garage (there is very limited street parking in SOMA), the fob remote system to enter the apartment building (which always seem to break), etc. So for 2022 I will have paid OVER $20,000 in HOA fees, but for what? Water?

I have written the board members of the HOA and haven't heard a response. I have contacted the other two commercial property owners in the building and one is on board to create a separate HOA just for the commercial spaces but the other owner is reluctant to do anything (I think he is a member of the HOA board). On top of everything they announced a raise in HOA fees to $1,200 for 2023!

Should I hire a lawyer? The other owner who wants to start the commercial HOA says if all commercial tenants agree to separate from the building HOA they can start their own, but the other owner is not on board. How can I go about trying to reduce my HOA fee and solving this issue of paying for a service I don't receive?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Best,

Dan

Thanks Chris for the good ideas.  I forgot to mention there is lighting, but i will look into the jersey barriers.  

Hello,

I have a big box commercial (retail) property located in the SOMA neighborhood in San Francisco, that is between tenants.  In other words, the old tenants left a week ago and the new tenants don't move in until mid-February.  SOMA is known for having TONS of homeless living in tent cities as well as lots of graffiti.  

The property is about 60,000 square feet total including a 20,000 sq/foot parking lot with two separate entrances and no fence surrounding it.  My problem is while there are no tenants occupying the space we need to prevent the building from being graffitied, people camping and living in the parking lot, and damaging the property in general.  We have boarded up the windows and are thinking of putting up a chain to prevent cars from entering either entrance into the parking lot but I am wondering if anyone has suggestions for how to protect the building while it is in transition?

Thanks for your attention,

Dan